San Francisco, CA – Assemblymember Philip Y. Ting (D-San Francisco) kicked off the first of a series of community events today designed to help San Franciscans obtain health insurance through the open enrollment period under Obamacare, which started on October 1. Today’s health and wellness fair at San Francisco State University featured information booths hosted by healthcare advocates and providers to help people navigate and benefit from Obamacare.

“California stands at a crossroads,” said Ting. “Millions of our fellow citizens are now eligible for health insurance but they won’t be covered unless we seize the moment and help each other. We all know someone without insurance or enduring inadequate care. People need to know the facts so that no one falls through the cracks.”

Ting launched his enrollment campaign at San Francisco State today because it is an epicenter of need in San Francisco. 40 percent of the campus community has no health insurance.

“With 31% of young Californians lacking health insurance, we know that it’s important to meet young adults where they are to share information on how to enroll– whether it’s great events such as these on great campuses like SFSU or through social media,” said Joshua Bloom, Organizing Director for a health advocacy group called the Young Invincibles focused on young adults. “Over 2.6 million young Californians could qualify for free or low cost coverage, and we are excited to educate our generation about their options. In just the first week of open enrollment, we have seen so much interest in California and among young adults, so we are thrilled to be working to create a healthy young California.”

Representatives of Covered California – the state’s new marketplace for private healthcare coverage created by the state legislature to help Californians find the health plan that is right for them – also joined Ting. Covered California just began operations on October 1.

Aside from a new standard of care across all health plans, Obamacare will enable over 6 million previously uninsured Californians to obtain health insurance. In its first week, Covered California processed over 16,000 applications for health insurance that will cover over 28,000 Californians.

Ting has two additional community meetings planned this month as part of his enrollment campaign:

6-8pm on Wednesday, October 23 at the West Bay Conference Center, 2nd Floor, 1290 Fillmore Street

10am-12pm on Saturday, October 26 at the San Francisco County Fair Building, 1199 9th Ave at Lincoln Way

Multilingual materials will be available at all meetings to ensure that limited English proficiency is not a problem for benefitting from Obamacare. Able to speak Chinese, Ting even created his own outreach materials in Chinese – including this public service announcement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vb8t8z2BTU.

“My passion is to ensure that limited English skills are never an obstacle,” added Ting. “That is why I am committed to expanding access to interpreters and using my ability to speak Chinese to help out during enrollment in Obamacare.”